Michael Chiesa reveals graphic photo showing a body fracture before fight against Rafael dos Anjos

Michael Chiesa is coming off an emphatic decision victory over Rafael dos Anjos. It was a high-risk low reward fight for the Brazilian but he decided to take on the unranked Chiesa anyway, losing and presumably dropping in the rankings.

As for Chiesa, he wasted no time in his interview, telling Colby Covington that he'll see him later in the year - presumably after July. What stood out was as to just how dominant Chiesa was against the former Lightweight Champion.

It appears as though quite a few Welterweights have found the solution to beating dos Anjos at 170 pounds and Chiesa left no doubt on the judges' scorecards as to who should have won the fight.

However, just like most other fighters, he had to push through major pain and injury. On his Instagram, he showed a graphic photo revealing that he had a nose fracture - something that he got over a month before UFC Raleigh:

View this post on Instagram

Heres a #tbt to December 11th when I fractured my nose in two places during training camp for RDA. I didn’t want to lose the opportunity’s head of me so I had to take a chance. Deciding not to pull out of the fight made it the most stressful camp of my career. With only a small fraction of the sparring and live grappling I normally do in an 8 week camp, we still got the job done. #campchiesa

A post shared by Michael Chiesa (@mikemav22) on Jan 30, 2020 at 11:08am PST

Chiesa knew what a big opportunity this was. He was unranked and took on a Top 5 ranked opponent, beating him decisively as he planned to. It was a good gameplan from Chiesa and his team and he'll be looking to make strides at Welterweight. If he can beat Colby Covington (which many people won't bet on him to do), he could have a chance at instantly breaking into the top 5 rankings.

However, that all depends on how long Covington is out for after suffering a broken jaw at UFC 245. Moreover, the UFC may offer Chiesa lower-ranked opponents to climb his way up before that.